To the citizens of Ocean City:
Ocean City is a vibrant tourist destination known for our beautiful beaches, family friendly events, great dining and amenities, and our safe, clean community. Tourism is the foundation of our economy and we pride ourselves on welcoming everyone to enjoy our beautiful city. At the same time, we expect our guests to respect our town, our citizens, and our laws and ordinances.
Unfortunately, this weekend brought visitors with much different intentions. While H2O International is not, and has never been, a city-hosted or sanctioned event and was officially cancelled this year, we still hosted thousands of participants. There were a handful of visitors this weekend who came to simply enjoy our city. Unfortunately, it was the vast majority of the participants that quickly ruined it for everyone, with unruly behavior and zero respect for our laws and property. The isolated incidents of violence combined with heavy traffic, littler, rude behavior, and negligent driving cast a very negative view over the whole weekend.
Considering the number of unruly visitors, I believe our officers, together with partner agencies, including the Maryland State Police, Maryland Transportation Authority, and sheriff’s officers from Worcester, Wicomico and Queen Anne’s counties, did an outstanding job of preventing events from escalating even further. I am extremely proud to have witnessed the level of professionalism displayed by our officers in the face of such adversity.
Based on preliminary reports:
- Officers responded to 2,735 total calls for service from Thursday, September 28 through Sunday, October 1. Only 21% of those calls for service were initiated by citizens, which tells me that our officers were proactive and addressed any issues quickly throughout the entire weekend.
- Several of these calls for service involved large crowds of unruly individuals seeking to instigate police officers to engage them. Our officers remained disciplined and monitored the crowds, taking measured action as required
- Several officers suffered minor injuries during interactions with arrestees. On Saturday night, one of our officers and a Worcester County Sheriff’s deputy were struck and thrown to the hood of a fleeing vehicle, forcing officers to fire their weapons. Thankfully, no officers or suspects were seriously injured as a result of this incident.
- Officers arrested 78 individuals. While one individual was charged with attempted murder, the majority face disorderly conduct, open container, 2nd degree assault and other similar charges.
It was very discouraging, to say the least, to see the amount of destruction to our town and the appalling behavior of many visitors. From trash throughout parking lots to tire markings at many intersections, our Public Works crews have worked diligently to restore the beauty of our town. We express our sincerest thanks to them for their efforts.
We understand our residents’ concerns about the events that occurred over the weekend and assure you that we share those concerns. While we assess the weekend and consider actions to take moving forward, it is critically important that we not allow one weekend to take away from what Ocean City is: a safe, beautiful, and clean place where families live and visit.
Ross Buzzuro, Chief of Police
8 comments:
I don't like unruly behavior, but I'm waiving the bs flag on this one. Of course there was no mention of the police officer who struck a pedestrian who was reportedly crossing legally in the crosswalk. I drove down Coastal Highway on Friday afternoon and was in OC on Saturday. From what I could see, the majority of people there for the event were fine. A small percent seemed to be the disrupters. That is similar to many of the organized "gatherings" in OC. Family friendly...please...get a grip, sir. I was there in July with friends and was embarrassed by what we saw and heard...and, it did not seem especially clean nor friendly. Seems like this is nothing more than an attempt to make himself appear important. Maybe he could get a job with Jake Day.
beat me to it 5:54. appears we just had another normal OC weekend!! they stopped getting my bussiness when they decided to ban smoking due to second hand smoke...oh wait or was that a littering problem? You cant fix stupid but OC sure does give it a try..
What kind of crack are you two smoking. I like in ocean city and I couldn't tell if it was ocean city or Fergeson during a riot.
The chief is spot on.
What is this group H20i?
Haven't been to O.C. since 2003. I'm 29 miles away. That says it all.
Originally it was people with Audi/VW cars but its grown to be just about anyone with a car that's been modified and most of the mods are illegal. There were 1222 stops last years weekend for mostly illegally modified cars.
QUOTE:
"We are NEVER coming back to this town again. There is no respect for the law, young people with bad attitudes everywhere."
(Quote from my dad, on about the 3rd year of about 20 years around 1962, that we vacationed in OC.)
We will all survive this weekend.
Next time OCPD needs to ticket and remove ALL participants from being in OC. Give them a trespassing ticket and make them leave!
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